


The World Was Built For Two

by isawrightless



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 01:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6931603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isawrightless/pseuds/isawrightless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To be honest, Dick thinks Tim would rather get shot than sick and that scares him a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The World Was Built For Two

Tim rarely gets sick.

That little fact comes as no surprise, though. He’s always looking after his health, choosing his food carefully as well as taking the precautions to avoid the flu. He’s learned at least five different ways to make a headache stop without any type of painkillers for those tend to leave him dizzy. With the loss of his spleen, he’s become even more aware of things that could put him in a bed.

To be honest, Dick thinks Tim would rather get shot than sick and that scares him a little.

But, as much as he tries to prove otherwise, Tim is only human. His healthy diet should not include sleepless nights spent in front of a computer or jumping from rooftop to rooftop, chasing maniacs and wannabe bandits. Nights in which the weather doesn’t cooperate, and the air is cold, but the rain is even colder.

Rain that cleanses, the same rain that leaves him with a fever, grumbling in his sleep as he fights to find a position in bed that doesn’t make any part of his body ache. It only gets worse when he’s awake. He pretends he’s not sick, puts a ‘d’ at the end of ‘fine’, coughs until his eyes water and stands up only to fall back on the bed.

Dick sighs, gives him medicine and tends to the wounds from his fight two days ago. There’s a yellowing bruise on his arm, and an ugly cut on his neck. That one sends Dick’s heart to his throat, even if just for a minute, because it’s way too close to that scar. But he swallows the worry, laughs at how cranky Tim gets when he’s sick and takes care of him and refuses to trade places with Alfred when said man throws the offer at him.

Damian isn’t happy to know there will be no patrolling tonight. He yells, swears, says he’s overreacting over a damn flu and that Drake knows how to take care of himself. Dick is quick to recognize the jealousy behind the words, and he feels guilty and wishes to tell Damian that he would do the same for him in a heartbeat, but it wouldn’t matter and the child would brush his words off as a way of convincing him to calm down. He wishes to tell Damian that after Bruce’s death, every little thing sends him a bit over the edge, even a silly flu. And if Damian would just listen to him, then he’d tell him about his luck and how much it’s been failing him these past few days. But a conversation is not an option, not when Damian takes off to his room, enraged that something as important as looking after Gotham is being put aside tonight. Despite the argument, Dick smiles. Damian could easily go out on his own, but he stays in the house. A good progress.

And maybe it’s hard to explain that Tim is much more important than Gotham. As sad as it is, that’s where he’s different from Bruce and everything he’s been taught. It sounds horrible, but he’d sacrifice a million to save one. One of his own. Family comes first. Not Gotham nor the costumes.

When it happens, when Tim starts to shiver and mumble and frown, Dick takes him in his arms. The nightmares are something he can’t protect Tim from, but he’s there, holding him. He’s there when dead mothers and dead fathers slip out of Tim’s mouth in a scream, and he’s there when Tim grabs his shirt and twists, still drowning in his sleep.

He’s there because it’s come to a point where Dick is not himself if there’s no Tim.

So Gotham can wait.


End file.
